NSW outmuscled Maroons forwards, says Dowling
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Former Maroons hardman Greg Dowling says prop David Shillington must start next month’s State of Origin series decider to quell an aggressive NSW pack which so far has Queensland’s measure.
Shillington claimed a slice of Origin history in the Maroons’ 16-12 loss to NSW on Wednesday night as the first to win the team’s players’ player award starting off the bench.
Read Ryan O’Connell’s take on Origin Game 2
His uncompromising 157 metres on a highly-physical night almost matched starting prop Matt Scott (159m) and was 51 metres better than veteran Petro Civoniceva carved out in a brutal clash which caught the selectors’ eyes.
With injury concerns over star fullback Billy Slater (knee), Corey Parker (leg cut) and Sam Thaiday, who missed Origin II with a shoulder injury, Queensland selectors might be forced to make some tough calls for the first time in several years before settling on a 17-man squad for the decider.
Greg Inglis looks the logical man to replace Slater but they could play Darius Boyd at fullback or even blood Bulldogs’ try-scoring genius Ben Barba.
“We’re not panicking. We’ll sit down and look at our options and get injury updates after the weekend,” said Queensland chairman of selectors Des Morris on Thursday.
Dowling believes one of those options must be to promote Shillington into the firing line from the outset.
Heavily involved in some of Origin’s most vicious clashes during the 1980s, Dowling said the Blues’ series-levelling victory ranked up with the most ferocious he’d seen.
“They went at each other from the time new boy Tim Grant slammed into his teacher Petero with the first charge of the night,” said Dowling.
Dowling admired Shillington’s courage on a fierce night.
“They bashed him and he kept saying ‘bring it on’ – that’s what you need,” said Dowling.
“Queensland got swept away up front and it was much the same in the first game. They just gave it to us for the first 20 minutes.
“Credit to Queensland, they kept coming back – they always do, but we have to find a way to match that power up front early.”
Shillington has started in two of his six Origins for a 34-6 win in game two in 2010 and a 28-16 loss in game three the previous year.
“I’d love to be out there for the first whistle but I don’t think anything needs to change from that game, one to 17, provided everyone is fit,” said the Raiders’ giant.
Dowling, meanwhile, felt South Sydney forward Dave Taylor let slip a great opportunity to make an Origin statement replacing Thaiday.
“He (Taylor) struggles in Origin and I don’t know why,” said Dowling.
“The stage was set for him to go out and put his stamp of authority on it and he never did.”
Queensland missed Thaiday’s intimidation when the Blues’ big men went hunting Billy Slater and Johnathan Thurston.
“Sam would have relished the way the game was played and I think Queensland missed him more than they thought they would,” said Dowling.
“They’ve got a real challenge on their hands in the decider with NSW having all the momentum.”
© AAP 2013The Crowd Says (8) | Page 1 of Comments
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June 15th 2012 @ 1:28am
Worlds biggest said | June 15th 2012 @ 1:28am | Report comment
So all of a sudden NSW has all the momentum after just hanging on in Game 2 ? The reverse psychology has started. The same stuff was said before game 3 last year and we got blown out of the water. The fact is while Blues played well and deserved to win, in some ways they were also lucky. Qld are yet to play anywhere near there best in this series and always turn it on at home. Sticky and Co, don’t fall into this trap again. We are underdogs for game 3 and rightly so.
June 15th 2012 @ 2:07am
BennO said | June 15th 2012 @ 2:07am | Report comment
Well played NSW. I didn’t enjoy that game one bit. Our boys looked a bit lethargic at the start I thought, but as the game wore on they got into it a bit more. But credit where it’s due, the reason we haven’t played well this series is because NSW haven’t let us. We got bashed last night (it was last night when I saw the replay) and we had no answers for it.
Our forwards need to lay more of a platform if we’re gonna win game 3. I’d put NSW down as favourites for sure.
June 15th 2012 @ 6:38am
warren said | June 15th 2012 @ 6:38am | Report comment
Qld pride has got them over the line so many times and it has to be admired. However this may backfire by having to include Petro in their line up. He is past his prime and struggled during the game to keep up with them. Agree NSW will still be underdogs for the 3rd match as putting Inglis at fullback is not going to take anything away from this side.
June 15th 2012 @ 7:09am
Wayno said | June 15th 2012 @ 7:09am | Report comment
A fifty fifty bet the final game I think. I hope they pick Petro again, that puts them one down in the player stats. A huge task for the Blues, but you never know.
June 15th 2012 @ 9:26am
Gaz said | June 15th 2012 @ 9:26am | Report comment
NSW have turned the last two games into ‘bashathons’ and it appears to be working. They are throttling our brilliant back line by cleverly targeting Slater, Inglis and more importantly Thurston. Stuart is simply attacking our strengths not our weaknesses. Thurston looked completely lost, down on confidence and creating unaccustomed errors. When your main play maker is shut down, so is your attack and it painfully showed throughout both games.
This game plan almost got them the win in Melbourne so they continued, improved and got the lollies in Sydney. Queensland on the other hand absorbed the punishment in Melbourne but ran out of puff on Wednesday nite. Obviously the Qld brains trust decided to take them on in the same manner and came up empty handed in fact they were found wanting.
No doubt the Blues will employ the same tactics at Lang Park therefore throwing down the gauntlet to improve or cop the same fate. Qld would be crazy to try and match force with force, we simply do not have the forward firepower at our disposal. When Stuart sweet talked Tamau into foregoing his heritage, alarm bells were ringing that he intended to create a monster forward pack to bash Qld into submission. Remember last year it was a small mobile pack that failed.
Qld now have the ball in their court and need to come up with a sustainable plan to annul and tire their big boppers to allow our line breakers Thurston, Smith and Cronk to get the ball out to Slater, Inglis and Hodges to turn the tide in our favor.
As far as Petero is concerned, it’s his last origin game and to do that in front of his family and friends is a no brainer. It’s not about pride it’s about loyalty, something those south of the border have yet to come to grips with, understand or show.
June 15th 2012 @ 1:10pm
george said | June 15th 2012 @ 1:10pm | Report comment
year too long petro .greg bird was smiling every time petro did a hit up..bird was saying ”how easy is it bashing this old bastard”
June 15th 2012 @ 5:41pm
Arthur Fonzarelli said | June 15th 2012 @ 5:41pm | Report comment
The next 3 weeks will see much Petro-bagging, in fact all the QLD forwards will cop it from the likes of Dish-head Dowling and other old timers who will no doubt fill the Courier Mail with not-too-subtle messages to fire up their team.
It will have one effect and you can guarantee he (and the other QLD forwards) will have a blinder at Suncorp.
As much as NSW outmuscled QLD I though Petro went OK and still made the advantage line, as did Scott, which is more than can be said for Taylor, Parker, Harrison, Myles who made no impact against the NSW savagery.
June 15th 2012 @ 9:13pm
Worlds biggest said | June 15th 2012 @ 9:13pm | Report comment
Petero is a freak playing Origin at 36, I reckon he was solid on Wednesday still trucking it up. Agree the Courier Mail will help fire up the Maroons for game 3.